My So-Called Live

On Unconventional Conventions

I realize that I'm kind of late to the party on the whole Fat Princess foofarah, but since I want to use this latest internet kerfuffle as a platform on which to discuss larger issues facing the gaming community, I hope you'll bear with me. As many of you probably already know, some people (most vocally: feminists) were upset by the downloadable PS3 game Fat Princess because of its perceived exacerbation of unfair stereotypes. Now, as a gamer, who has put up with quite a bit of game-bashing over the years from the likes of the United States Senate and parental watchdog groups, I'm as quick to defend my humble and largely innocuous hobby as the next gamer... but I'm going to say that I think that there is some credence to the idea that Fat Princess is at least a tiny bit offensive.

Stick with me on this, because I'm one of you and I understand the knee-jerk reaction of outrage that kicks in whenever the moral superiority our favorite pastime is ruthlessly besmirched out of hand. After trolling through a number of blogs (this one on feministe.com does a particularly good job of presenting the issue from the feminist perspective), I think that you can't honestly make the argument that Fat Princess doesn't perpetuate pernicious stereotypes about either fat people or princesses (and by extension, women). Listen, most of the media in our society perpetuates some form of prejudice or another, so why should Fat Princess be exempt? The issue as I see it, is not so much with the fact that people are offended by this game or any other, but how we as a gaming community have been trained to react to these criticisms: with VIOLENCE!

Okay, maybe not with actual violence, but with the internet equivalents like rude photochop jobs and cruel invective.

Look at how cute the princess is while she upholds prejudicial norms.

It's understandable, to a degree, because our hobby is constantly under attack by people that are mystified as to the joy it can bring, and indeed has brought, to our daily lives, but our current approach to rebuffing opposition to our hobby isn't especially effective in any forum, be it internet or the court of public opinion (whatever the heck that is if not the internet). When I was young, my mom had a saying that I know for a fact she did not make up: you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. The current response from the gaming public to feminists hurt by the not-particularly-sensitive title Fat Princess has been the exact opposite of that saying. No matter how valid the argument that naming your game after a subset of the population that is frequently belittled and marginalized as being somehow subhuman is upsetting (and some would argue that this is precisely the reason that Fat Princess is so named), we gamers are more than prepared to defend it with fire... and any other animated GIFs we have at our disposal.

As our fledgling art form grows to maturity, we can expect many more of these debates and I think that this is a good thing in general. It means that the medium of video games is gaining greater traction in the mainstream and becoming a genuine force to be reckoned with. As this happens, however, we have to be strong as a community and take care in the way we as individuals respond to perceived threats to our hobby. It's good that we discuss these issues rather than dismiss them immediately as reactionary, even if we genuinely feel that they are silly or deranged in some way.

I think the controversy surrounding racism in Resident Evil 5 is a perfect example, because here is an issue born from taking things in a game completely out of context. Since RE5 is set in Africa, I would expect there to be Africans in greater proportion, so I don't understand why people freaked out about the preponderance of dark-skinned people. But that doesn't mean that I should just tell all the people that are upset that they should go die in a fire, because these people are just confused and operating under a misunderstanding about RE5's premise and setting... it's easy to explain what's going on without pissing people off.

Plus, it makes us look like adults, which some of us actually happen to be.

And that is, unfortunately, all I have time for today, because Sterling is herding us into the podcast studio for our usual Wednesday update. As always, please don't hesitate to email me any comments or concerns that I may have unearthed in my column... or, if you'd prefer a more public forum, just leave your comments below using our ultra high-tech user comments function. See you online!